Education starts from the moment you are born. You open your eyes and instantly start learning about the world around you. Your parents are your first influence, shaping the person you will become from the moment they first hold you in their arms. You grow under their watch, and when it is time, they introduce you to another major influence: teachers. Suddenly, you are spending hours away from home with adults who are just as important to listen to as your parents, and your world will never be the same. From early childhood through early adulthood, teachers are major figures in your life, shaping not only the kind of learner you are, but the person you become.
My second grade teacher was especially influential to me. I have always been someone who learns by doing, and she included hands-on activities in her lessons and sometimes had class outside. When teaching at any level, but especially when teaching elementary-age children, you have to make learning fun for them, and she always did that. She would have competitions to see who could add and subtract the fastest, adding a friendly competitive element and an exciting time limit to what would otherwise be a boring math worksheet. The time limit ensured children would be focused on only math the for the entirety of the activity. I have always disliked math, but the competition got all the kids excited, and we wanted to do better and better. She had the sense of humor (and, undoubtedly, the patience) necessary to spend hours a day with second-graders. She seemed to have fun in class, and that made her students have fun, too. I was close to her and continued to visit her throughout elementary school, even it was just popping my head in the door to say hi.
She was very similar to my grandmother; they are both children at heart, always looking to have fun. My grandma came to a school board game day once and they bonded. From then on, she would always ask me, "How's grandma?" When my grandma took a cruise and went parasailing, she gave me a picture to show my teacher. This past summer, when I went on a cruise with her, we took a picture together parasailing, and I went back and showed my second grade teacher. She loved that I thought of her and I love that our connection is still strong years later, that she still cares now just as much as when I was her student.
My second grade teacher is a perfect example of the lasting influence elementary teachers have on children. I built a connection with her when I was young that continues to this day, much like connections children make with their parents. She got me excited about learning from a young age and showed me that school can be fun, shaping the student I am today at an early age. She showed me the kind of teacher I want to be, one who cares about her students outside of the classroom and far past her grade level.
Education starts from the moment you are born. You open your eyes and instantly start learning about the world around you. Your parents are your first influence, shaping the person you will become from the moment they first hold you in their arms. You grow under their watch, and when it is time, they introduce you to another major influence: teachers. Suddenly, you are spending hours away from home with adults who are just as important to listen to as your parents, and your world will never be the same. From early childhood through early adulthood, teachers are major figures in your life, shaping not only the kind of learner you are, but the person you become.
My second grade teacher was especially influential to me. I have always been someone who learns by doing, and she included hands-on activities in her lessons and sometimes had class outside. When teaching at any level, but especially when teaching elementary-age children, you have to make learning fun for them, and she always did that. She would have competitions to see who could add and subtract the fastest, adding a friendly competitive element and an exciting time limit to what would otherwise be a boring math worksheet. The time limit ensured children would be focused on only math the for the entirety of the activity. I have always disliked math, but the competition got all the kids excited, and we wanted to do better and better. She had the sense of humor (and, undoubtedly, the patience) necessary to spend hours a day with second-graders. She seemed to have fun in class, and that made her students have fun, too. I was close to her and continued to visit her throughout elementary school, even it was just popping my head in the door to say hi.
She was very similar to my grandmother; they are both children at heart, always looking to have fun. My grandma came to a school board game day once and they bonded. From then on, she would always ask me, "How's grandma?" When my grandma took a cruise and went parasailing, she gave me a picture to show my teacher. This past summer, when I went on a cruise with her, we took a picture together parasailing, and I went back and showed my second grade teacher. She loved that I thought of her and I love that our connection is still strong years later, that she still cares now just as much as when I was her student.
My second grade teacher is a perfect example of the lasting influence elementary teachers have on children. I built a connection with her when I was young that continues to this day, much like connections children make with their parents. She got me excited about learning from a young age and showed me that school can be fun, shaping the student I am today at an early age. She showed me the kind of teacher I want to be, one who cares about her students outside of the classroom and far past her grade level.